[Ellsbury] reached base on catcher’s interference for the 30th time, passing the mark that had been held by Pete Rose. [...] Rose, baseball’s career hits leader, had 15,890 plate appearances. Ellsbury reached the record in 5,308.

Uncle Sam’s uniforms are worth a ticket to baseball games in Cincinnati. All soldiers in uniform will be admitted free to games at the Cincinnati National league park, President Herrman announces. This offer, however, will be suspended on Sundays.

“You see it changing,” Votto said. “You see the left-handed strike zone, the left-handed outside pitch moves closer to the plate - less balls are called away. The left-handed strike is moving closer to the strike zone. Pitches that are up and in, pitches that are in, are being called strikes. I can manage that.

“When I was first called up, there’s no - I don’t think there’s any debate that the pitch that was outside was called a strike more often, and sinkerball guys, guys with running ...

From Sept. 10-17, the world will recoginize “World Suicide Prevention Week,” a cause that is close to Betts’ heart.

Just after leaving high school, one of Betts’ close friends, Braxton, took his own life. The two had grown up together playing basketball and football, with their families often getting together. It wasn’t the only incident Betts had come in contact involving that form of tragedy, with his family having also previously been affected by suicide.

To the average American fan his reading accounts of the game in British papers will be truly interesting. In brief, one of the London contemporaries has termed the sport “Merry Hulla-Ballo.” Thus far the foreign critics have not fully grasped the common expression of “That’s the boy.”
...
While Stanley, the Canadian twirler, was displaying an effective delivery, the fans complained that he was throwing ...

This was not an easy call. While there was some support for conducting a vote, even if it was a mere formality, there was even more backing for simply calling Fenway the winner. Moreover, there was a substantial undercurrent of thought that even having a vote threatened the project itself. It’s not an opinion I share, but given I’m relying on the support of Primates to keep thing going, it’s one I have to take seriously. Thus, I hereby proclaim that Fenway Park is the name of choice for the ...

There are 18 minor league affiliations that play playoffs every season, and those playoffs all have different formats – some with one wild card, some with split first-half/second-half winners, some with a required 8-10 team playoff grouping. This season, the issues caused by Hurricane Irma will lead to 3 of those 18 championships being cancelled and turned into co-champions.

“Teams want young people with very few ties. They want people who would be willing to travel 300 days,” Newman told CBS Sports. “I was very cognizant of the fact that the only way that I could scout was if I had a team that thought I was good enough to cater to my family and some of my scheduling needs. I was also cognizant of the fact that, why would they ever do that with a thousand other people in line behind me to get a scouting job? I’m not that [freaking] special.”

The blisters have become just part of the issue for the Toronto Blue Jays Aaron Sanchez, who was told just days ago by Dr. Thomas Graham, a hand specialist, that he has damaged a ligament in his right middle finger, likely the result of compensating for the blisters and fingernail issues that have plagued him this season.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

His Most Reverend Barry puts the Nationals’ journey into perspective. A good read.

Stephen Strasburg was first out of the clubhouse and up the dugout steps, and Bryce Harper was right behind him, and that’s just the perfect introduction to the 2017 National League East champions – the two players who best represent the transformation from irrelevant, 100-loss jokes into what the Washington Nationals are now, which is a contender for best franchise in baseball.

A comparison of breaking pitches with Romine and Sanchez would make for an interesting study. Sanchez does get lazy back there. Do Yankees pitchers adjust to Sanchez by changing either their aggressiveness below the strike zone or their mix of pitches?

“Sanchez has got a ways to go defensively, and I knew it all along,” a Major League scout for an opposing club told NJ Advance Media. “He gets very lazy. He wants to reach instead of shifting his feet. He tries to get away with stuff because of ...

Marte came over from the Mariners in last winter’s Taijuan Walker–Jean Segura trade, which means he received Hall-of-Fame-quality hitting tutorials before arriving in Arizona.

“Edgar Martinez was my hitting coach in Seattle last year, and he taught me a lot,” Marte told me in late August. “He would tell me that every time he would go to home plate, he would be looking to hit the ball to right field. He said if you’re thinking middle away, you’re going to be ...

I’m going to have to think about it because I can’t remember off the top of my head but…haven’t there been studies which looked at this? If there haven’t, this can be simulated. As a proxy, looking at injured players with replacement players would give us an answer. It’s essentially a question about peak vs. average.

On the other part of the question related to the Jeter hitting good pitching versus a guy who feasts on bad pitchers but is overmatched against better hurlers, I also believe ...